Final Thoughts on Fox's Creativity

Matthew Fox tells us (in his book, Creativity) that economist David Korten writes, "There is no more powerful expression of a society's values than its economic institutions. In our case, we have created an economy that values money over all else, embraces inequality as if it were a virtue, and is ruthlessly destructive of life. The tragedy is that for most of us the values of global capitalism are not our values. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that we find ourselves in psychological and social distress" (224).

I finally finished Fox's Creativity, a gift from my minister. In it Fox advocates that creativity is holy, that it is where grace and good works meet, and that it is only by being radically creative (and just and compassionate) that we can improve upon this mess. Fox also says that our current structures may have to break before we can rebuild.

Friends and I have talked about this, and I can discuss the validity of Korten's statement with you at length. Earth will eventually run out of oil. And probably clean water, and arable land, and possibly clean air. Should we hasten this time, destroying the natural environment (at least reducing its habitability for humans) as we go? Or should we try to mitigate it beforehand? Some say we'll have to wait until we've gone too far. Necessity is the mother of invention and all that. I don't think Fox disagrees.

Matthew Fox was a Catholic who was dismissed from the Dominican Order for saying that we are born with original blessing instead of original sin (he wrote a whole book on it). Now Fox is an Episcopal priest and a radical teacher who calls a bit on the essence of my dear Derrick Jensen and Daniel Quinn (as well as Eckhart and Julian of Norwich and Hildegard, etc.) for his morality. Indeed, there is a great humanism in Fox's theology and his work. God is still God, supreme and all that, but that doesn't give human beings a license to be lazy, to be fearful, to avoid using our gifts.

Fox believes that God made us great. Yes, we sin, but we are also among God's greatest creatures. We have a sort of noblesse oblige - with great rights, great faculties and capacity for reason and creativity - come great responsibility.

Here's what I got out of this book: Be curious, just, compassionate, grateful, open, loving, joyful, respectful, responsible. Be alert. Play. Do not be fearful or jealous. Fear is a big one. It's easy to gloss over it. Think about why you live the life you do. I, for one, work for The Man because I want to live a comfortable life, because I am afraid of the physical discomfort and the social shame that might come with living the 'right' way. And finding the 'right way' is hard work. It involves listening to yourself and creation (praying, meditating, talking with friends, paying attention to and learning from the world) and accepting truths society might try to mask because they're too hard. I still live in fear. But I am learning to be more thankful and, I hope, a little more aware.

Creativity by Matthew Fox

This book was a gift from my minister. I'm reading it some days at lunchtime at work, and I am kind of torn on its pros and cons. Mostly, I think Fox could be more clear and concise. He's a prolific writer and is very popular in his sort of high church + mysticism + New Age feel good self-help-like genre. His books include some very interesting quotations by different mystics and he's not devoid of insight. He just goes on a bit too much and things start to sound syrupy or fluffy after a while. I won't say his work is hollow, because Fox is passionate and sincere about it, but the work is clearly more inspiration than reasoned explication, and that sort of writing is hard for me to embrace in more than short spurts.

However, as far as inspiration goes, I was reading yesterday at lunch a passage Fox wrote about Taoism and learning to praise. Being thankful has long been an important idea or even mantra in my life: "If the only prayer you said in your whole life was 'Thank you,' that would suffice," wrote Meister Eckhart (Fox is a scholar of Fox and a huge admirer).

I'm guessing nobody here knows who Matthew Fox is. He wrote "Original Blessing," a huge book I read for a book club recently. That book focuses on how we were all created as blessed creatures, that our creativity and imagination are gifts, and that we work with God. He downplays the idea of Original Sin. He doesn't deny sin as a general concept, but he doesn't think we're inherently damaged when we come into this world. Years before we read him in book club, Fox also came up in my studies of Meister Eckhart, about whom I wrote a very bad research paper in grad school. In his "Creativity," Fox writes about how creativity is a holy process, a celebration of and communion with the divine. It's beautiful and heretical and much more in line with my personal theology these days. In the chapter on learning how to praise, Fox explores almost too many metaphors about ways that people can observe nature, reflect on it, and imitate aspects of it. Again, it's fluffy stuff, but it's inspirational also. I decided to reflect on some of my favorite animals and the following sort of thought exercise came out. Not sure the 'point,' but the process felt good. First note: my favorite animal is the elephant.

I am like the elephant, physically present, grounded, able to withstand force, adversity, change. I communicate through the earth, touch and hearing important senses. I recognize change in time. I listen. I am with my herd, sometimes in communion with my many fellow sisters, sometimes leading as matriarch.

I have always wished to be a bird, fluid, mobile, seeing the bigger picture, not just communicating by but delighting people through song.

I am fascinated by snakes, creatures of the earth, self-reliant, their entire bodies raw muscle. They eat occassionally, as needed. They use what they have, conserve, and consume only what they need. They strike when provoked, using natural venom or squeezing with their strength.

I also wrote a bit about lions. I am a Leo (I don't put much stock in astrology, but it is fun), and my boyfriend's name means 'two lions.' I'll save that text for him, I think.